Bruce Burkholder of Madison Township shows two of his recent works: a Pittsburgh Steelers helmet and "See Food," depicting a walleye, frogs, snails and salamanders. Both pieces are carved from a single piece of wood.

Bruce Burkholder has enjoyed crafting wood into intricate shapes since he was a young boy.

Throughout the years, he's given more than 250 of his uniquely sculpted pieces to family and friends.

But it wasn't until two years ago when the Madison Township man was laid off from a carpentry job he had worked at for two decades that he chose to twist his passion for woodcarving into a full-time livelihood.

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"When he got laid off I said, 'You've always wanted to do this so let's do it,' " said his wife, Linda, who has offered her full support.

Now, Bruce says he can't wait to begin work in the morning at his Wood Ease shop in Thompson Township. At times he becomes so immersed in the task at hand that he skips lunch and dinner.

"I love it," he said. "They're long (work) days but I don't care."

In November, Burkholder's special work was recognized in the Artistry In Wood show in Dayton, one of the largest of its kind in the nation with exhibitors hailing from more than half of the U.S. and Canada.

Burkholder's rocking horse made of block walnut with white oak rockers earned best of show in woodworking.

"I was ecstatic," he said of the accolade.

"I was very surprised. I had more (entry) pieces in woodcarving than woodworking. That's what shocked me. The woodworkers go against 18th-century-style chairs. It's phenomenal."

In the same show, a full-sized, 65-pound lion head Burkholder carved in relief form received a blue ribbon.

The artist said people who have been carving their whole lives told him they had never seen anything quite like the dramatic figure.

Burkholder, who graduated from Ledgemont High School in 1974, never received any formal training in woodworking but consistently reads about the subject.

And though the family lineage doesn't carry any woodcarvers, his grandfathers and uncles were woodworkers.

With cuts being a casualty of the craft, Burkholder said the worst scar he bears is on his thumb, the result of working on a project with a new knife while in the seventh grade.

Others stem from his lengthy career as a master carpenter.

"We were a rather specialty group," he said. "We did a lot of wood bending, making round structures requiring custom work. But we had to do basic stuff, too. I did circular staircases and round handrails, things I couldn't afford to put in my own home."

As with many carpenters, Burkholder claims a favorite type of wood with which to work.

"Cherry," he said. "It's real tight. It's soft even though it's a hardwood. Hardwoods are nonconiferous trees with an erratic grain and they're hard to carve because of that. Cherry is going to be that reddish, beautiful pinkish throughout and doesn't tend to split like cedar or redwood."

He also has his own measure to determine when a piece is complete.

"Everybody has their own little thing that they see and want to accomplish," he said. "When it looks great to me, it's done."

His detailed works range in size from tiny mice to bigger items such as a life-sized African impala head.

"I try to make it as real as I can," he said. "That's what makes me different ... I take it as far as I can with a chain saw and then start to carve. I usually have three or four projects in mind ... usually working with one in my head, working with one on my paper and (also actually) working on one."

Lately he's been spending time on horses.

"I grew up with horses," he said. "I can carve fishes and people say, 'That's nice,' but they love horses. It's about getting those little nuances to differentiate the breeds."